Spider-wasp-mimicking Robber Fly - ? sp.
Family Asilidae
This page contains pictures and information about Spider-wasp-mimicking Robber Flies
that we found
in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- Subfamily Dasypogoninae, body length 20mm
- This Robber fly has a black body, very long legs and golden wings. Its colour pattern mimics the Spider Wasp.
- It was resting on a large tree trunk in Karawatha Forest during early summer 2006. When we came close, it opened it wings, bend its abdomen , making the stinging action and show its yellow bands on its abdomen, tried very hard to convince us that it was a real Spider wasp.
- We had been fooled once, but not this time.
- We found the fly second time in Carbrook Wetland, Oct 2009.
